Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies

by The Guy Who Writes

Rehabilitation 14.1: A Tendency Towards Tyranny

Albus seriously wondered, not for the first time in his life, or the second, or the tenth, how long it's going to take this time for him to go truly, irredeemably, unretrievably mad. At a wild guess, a few days. A week at most.

Well, Albus hadn't been wrong. After around six days and change, he finally came to believe that Equus is as real as Earth, and ponies are as real as people.

It turned out to be possible to move the Mirror such that it reflects new objects and environments onto Albus's side, in real time. After that test had been run, Celestia had offered to take him on a tour of Equestria. Albus, in his role as neutral observer and critical evaluator, had not declined. Thus was the Mirror removed from its vault, with Riddle standing in front and Albus keeping pace within, wherever it moved.

In advance of all of this, he considered it highly unlikely that the Mirror would play ball with deception attempts that were purely illusion. Tom would at least have to fabricate physical objects and reflect those, which would be more difficult.

Fabricating a whole alternate universe, with multiple cities, countless colorful creatures that are not at all Voldemort's style, and a bumpy flying carriage ride in between each destination… that's not plausible even by Voldemort's standards of plausibility. Sure, the 'not his style' could be exactly what he wants Albus to think. The bumpy ride due to 'unexpected turbulence too strong for the stabilizing enchantments to dampen' could have been a convenient way to make it literally feel realer.

But…

But even given practically infinite time to forge this deception, it was just so… incredibly detailed. Voldemort would have gotten bored doing all this by himself.

The world itself is physically real, of that Albus is certain, and the ponies within are almost certainly real, in Albus's estimation.

Next question: Could Voldemort have literally cut this world out of whole cloth? Could he, perhaps, have created beings that went on to do all this work for him? Could he have arranged for a living world to be conjured from nothing, not unlike the Founders did with Hogwarts?

…

Again, highly unlikely in Albus's subjective view. Voldemort did not really create all that many things in his life. And even if Voldemort was capable of creating a Hogwarts, this is so far beyond that as to break Albus's suspension of disbelief when considering the possibility.

Far more likely, he thought, is that Voldemort was deposited into this pre-existing world, a world perhaps created by the Mirror, or more likely by the Atlanteans, and now Voldemort is doing what he does best: turning everything in that world to his advantage.

Voldemort could still be (and probably is) controlling what Albus sees, where he goes, whom he encounters. Ostensibly it was Celestia who chose which cities to visit, which streets to walk, which ponies to talk to. (Not that Albus interacted with most ponies, nor were most ponies even permitted to see Albus or the Mirror. Although he did speak with a few, including a few ponies he requested at random.) But it could still easily be a conspiracy in the 'Voldemort controls my information flow' regard.

For the most part, the Mirror floated a centimeter off the ground. Riddle and Celestia walked in front, guards walked beside, and the Mirror itself was disillusioned. Albus had to learn how to walk backwards in order to stay in place and not move forwards too quickly, to stay lockstep with the Mirror's surface. He kept an eye out in front of him on the ground through the Mirror's surface for things that would trip him up behind him.

In all his time as a powerful wizard, as the Holder of the Line of Merlin, and as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, he had never had to do something quite like it before, and so it took some getting used to.

Albus was given complete freedom to make requests, and he was given plenty of advance warning for all sudden changes of direction.

He occasionally asked them to pause when the Mirror reflected a wide enough space, an interesting sight, a vast forest, and then he himself would leave the Mirror, leave the viewing window showing Tom and Celestia, and explore things on his side.

The only thing the Mirror did not reflect, in its current setting, was anything with a brain. And if it reflected an object that was moving in the pony world for just about any reason, it would roll or drift to a stop on Albus's side, unless it was automated machinery. Anything powered by magic did not function on his side, only the mundane mechanisms were transferred, and so basically nothing functioned properly.

The first day had been a literal breath of fresh air. He did not realize how much he had missed the sight of the sun, the touch and smell of grass, the feel of a cool breeze on his skin.

The big modern mess of Manehattan… perhaps he could have done without that. But it had been the perfect place to request random ducks down alleys, or into shops, or state buildings.

The other cities were less urban, but no less impressive, especially Canterlot castle.

The Crystal empire: stunning.

Ponyville: nice and cozy.

From Ponyville, he asked to see the nearby forest, an outing that soothed his soul like red hot metal dipped in water.

Line-of-sight was not quite required for the Mirror to reflect something. It seemed to reflect objects, not merely what part of the object it could see. The Mirror could reflect buildings and their contents, cities and their contents, forests and their contents. Minus anything with a brain. And with hard borders on the sides. The reflected settings were deep, but narrow. Well, not too narrow, especially as he got further away from the mirror itself.

So he could go as deep into the distance as he wished. And a few times he did.

Albus wondered, as he walked through a forest – a forest which was not quite the best for an old man seeking a casual stroll, it had no paths and plenty of leaves and roots and hills, but it served well enough – Albus wondered if, all along, he could have drilled through the stone of the room he had been confined to for the week prior to this outing and seen an empty world beyond, with or without Riddle's permission.

Unaccompanied by Tom or Celestia or anybody, he found a good sturdy branch in the forest to turn into a broomstick, which he used once he had gotten his fill of walking.

What finally did it, though, was when he asked for the Mirror to be attached to the underside of the flying carriage, rather than sitting inside the passenger seat. He asked if he could ride that broomstick with a vast expansive world beneath him. Tom had to do the same to maintain Albus's presence, though Tom flew in his pony form, and it took a carefully regulated speed so that neither would outpace the other or the carriage.

Occasionally, Albus would ask them to slow down and pause mid-air. (The ponies claimed to rest their carriage on clouds that were impermeable to pegasi, alicorns, thestrals, and cloud-enchanted objects like the wheels to the flying carriage. They further claimed it was a pain to do this while keeping the space directly beneath the carriage compartment free of any clouds whatsoever.)

When the procession had come to a stop, Albus would fly down to the distant villages beneath him and enter the grocery store, the library (if there was one), the homes (though it felt just a bit wrong to do so, and he left quickly enough).

The rows of fruits and vegetables – all edible except the ones that humans couldn't eat, according to his edibility detection charm – hadn't quite been enough to convince him. The books in the library hadn't quite done it, though they were very convincing. Seeing unmade beds and scrambled toys in a child's room – that is what truly hammered home the reality of the situation.

Well, seeing it twenty times over, in five different villages, seeing evidence of different children with different parents and different habits and minds, THAT is what did it.

Given enough time, Voldemort might have been able to fabricate all that. But Albus considered that possibility so unlikely as to be worth discarding. Again, too much detail.

Far more likely is that Voldemort truly is inhabiting a world full of ponies, and he manipulated his way to the top of what he claims to be the most powerful country of that world, and now he's trying to manipulate Albus into releasing him.

One thing Albus was curious about, for he did not manage to eavesdrop upon them this time, is what agreement Tom supposedly settled upon to acquire Celestia's favor. Assuming the conversation he 'wasn't supposed to hear' a week ago hadn't been a lie, what favor is Tom giving in return for the massive favor from Celestia?

Even Albus had been slightly hesitant to make requests like 'please reflect massive swaths of your cities and/or countryside all at once', but Celestia had granted each and every request, after taking a few precautions. Perhaps what convinced her to acquiesce was Albus's continual conveyance of his own displeasure that he had to make such risky requests.

What could Celestia have demanded, what could Tom have agreed to do, that was capable of matching that?

---

Knock, knock. "Ms. Sparkle?"

Pause.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. "Are you there, Ms. Sparkle?" Riddle asked, raising his voice louder this time.

Long pause.

Riddle sighed in annoyance. He turned away from the door that led to the private research lab – the door that was supposed to lead to his first official day on 'Project Panacea'. It was a project to which, before, he had only ever acted as consultant. If he had time for it, if he was properly compensated for his time, and if he found Twilight's difficulties interesting/amusing.

It would have been most accurately named 'Project Mass-Immortality', but that would have been a bigger security issue in Celestia's eyes. As if 'Panacea' didn't have a similar problem.

He arrived exactly on time according to his deal with Celestia, did exactly as instructed, knocked on exactly the correct door, and was met with no answer.

But before leaping to any conclusions, he decided to gather more information.

The familiar face he came across as he headed towards the main library might be a decent source. What was the name again? He remembered it being a common name for a pet dog- ah. Right.

"Spike," he addressed.

The green dragon looked up from a parchment. "Huh?"

"Do you know where Ms. Sparkle has gone to? I'm meant to meet her at this hour."

The dragon waved his hand. "No idea. Today's one of those days."

Riddle blinked. "Ponyville is still having those?"

"Yep."

"Are they letting up at all?"

"Nope."

"Aren't you usually with her when 'these' days happen?" He remembered a story or five from Mr. Potter, and that had been a common trend.

"I got homework."

Riddle took the answers all in stride, not pausing as he thought of the next step he should take to meet his obligations. "Would you mind sending a letter to Celestia for me?"

"Only Twilight has permission to send letters to Princess Celestia."

Riddle said nothing in reply, just stared Spike in the eyes. He used no legilimency, no Confundus charm, or any other form of magical coercion. After a few seconds, he did remove his cloak and his glasses. It was a bat-winged, bat-fanged, eye-slitted thestral alicorn staring Spike in the eyes, instead of a seeming earth-pony. And a few seconds later, as he deliberately dwelled on death, as he consciously activated his connection to his two horcruxes, it was a semi-ascended Alicorn, with mane half-ethereal (and painful to look upon), who was staring at Spike.

Spike gulped. "Okay, okay, fine, Mr. Scary Alicorn, sheesh. You get to send letters to Princess Celestia too." He held out a claw-hand. "That'll be twenty bits."

Riddle's eyebrows rose, and he diminished his pressure. "How often do you charge for this?"

"Every time a pony asks, nowadays. Except Twilight, she gets one free send a day."

"Twenty bits is expensive."

"It's for instant delivery. And you don't get the friend discount. Twenty bits is how much I charge normal ponies who want to send something right away to other normal ponies."

Riddle considered pressing further, claiming that neither he nor the recipient were normal ponies, but he noticed he was contending with Spike's words and not his meaning, and let it drop. Besides, bits mean nothing to him, except as a form of power to get what he wants.

He levitated over the petty cash from one of his cape pockets, which he had slung back over his back at the same time that he had returned the glasses to his face. He brought forth a parchment, upon which words appeared, accompanied by small whisps of smoke.

"Say," said Spike, looking at the rising smoke. "How do you do that hornless stuff? It is hornless, right?"

"Yes." Riddle extended a hoof. "Two-hundred-thousand bits."

"Uh… yeah, no."

"That's what I thought."

Riddle handed over the finished letter, and Spike spat fire.

One minute later, a true Patronus appeared in front of Riddle, eliciting no more than a blink of reaction out of him. Internally, he felt the distant urge to fire a Killing Curse at the Patronus message, an interesting leftover impulse from his sabbatical in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot.

The Patronus spoke in Celestia's voice. "Normally, I would say no. I would say you are forbidden. I would say the first session is cancelled for reasons that are entirely not your fault, and that we shall reschedule for a time when Twilight is hopefully not occupied by…"

"One of those days," Spike whispered.

"…an important day of studying friendship and magic in the field." There was then a pause long enough to indicate the message had ended.

Not that you could stop me anyway, he thought. And you probably know that.

"Today is abnormal, I take it?" Riddle asked.

The Patronus left and then returned. "It is for me. It does not feel normal to grant express permission for something like this to a pony like you." There came a long-suffered sigh. "But for you it will be perfectly normal, just like the last few times. I doubt it is coincidence that Twilight is gone today, at this hour of all times. Just like I doubt it was coincidence you and Silver first met her when you did. Just like I doubt it was coincidence you returned the day of Chrysalis's invasion and Discord's escape. As much as it goes against every fiber of my being to say this now that I truly know you, experience is telling me that I should not interfere if you wish to seek her out. Or wait until the dust has settled. It is entirely up to you. I will not impede Harmony's design."

"Even with me involved?" he asked with a grin that he allowed to colour the tone of his voice.

"Yes, even with you involved. Despite all your faults, you are an alicorn and a strong wielder of Harmony magic. Who knows? Perhaps Twilight is doing something incredibly important, dangerous, and difficult, and she will need your military advice."

The Patronus vanished.

Leaving Riddle with a choice.

After consideration, he decided he would put some effort into locating Ms. Sparkle the normal way, and if that failed, he would find something else to do. The time in his schedule had already been set aside, so he'd be sacrificing none of his other interests by playing this small game of ponyhunt.

He has Ms. Sparkle's blood and hair samples in his study. (That is the term he now calls his workshop beneath Canterlot, for he has come to need a benign word to prevent members from the reserves from inquiring further; 'workshop' elicited curiosity and questions if they could see it, 'study' implied privacy and killed polite/curious questions about it). But using those samples to locate her would be a violation of the trust placed in him. Luna hadn't made the requested of Twilight for a reason like this.

Plus it would be cheating, which to be clear he has no problem resorting to in emergencies or important matters. But for casual problems like this one, it's best to allow the constraints stand so that you are actually challenged by the problem's difficulty instead of just brute forcing it.

So for the time being, he would stick to the ability set and toolset available to a less powerful wizard or pony trying to solve this problem, someone without access to dark locating charms from ancient lost lore. (And without access to the True Patronus charm which is capable of locating your friends who do not mind being found, though he wouldn't know about that trick until much later.)

As a first step, he considered asking Spike: when he last saw Twilight, what she had been doing, where she had been going. But then a better idea came to mind.

"Spike?"

The dragon groaned and looked up from his page again. "Yeah?"

"Twenty more bits, if you send a letter to Ms. Sparkle asking where she is."

Spike is not quite a tool available to most wizards and unicorns, but Riddle just couldn't help himself from thinking laterally about the problem. Besides, he shouldn't have helped himself. Anypony else in his position, operating under the same constraints, only without lore or powerful magic, could have seen this possibility too.

"Thirty bits if I have to write it myself," the dragon haggled. "And she might not appreciate being interrupted."

"Twenty-three," said Riddle. Because you don't ever want to get into the habit of not arguing for your own self-interest, otherwise others will walk all over you with their perceived self-interests. "You need not supply the quill or parchment, and it is not a long message. It is only a single question, 'Where are you?', followed by your signature." Twilight Sparkle was more likely to respond quickly if she believed it was Spike asking. "That is worth five additional bits, in my view, not ten. I could write it myself," he bluffed.

"Twenty-five bits," Spike argued, trying to upsell his own services once again.

"Fine. If you can do it in less than fifteen seconds."

Like anything else, arguing for your own self-interest is an art form. If Spike wants to pretend that the difficult task of writing one sentence and signing his name is worth two bits more than Riddle pretends to believe that simple task is worth – Riddle actually believes it's worth more than three bits, since the true purpose is to prevent Twilight from immediately realizing Riddle is the one who's asking, but Spike doesn't know that (not that he couldn't forge Spike's handwriting, but again that would be cheating) – then Riddle will demand a very minor task in return for those two extra bits. He demanded something so simple and easy that Spike will not balk at it, something that Spike might even view as a worthy challenge for two extra bits.

Plus, Riddle actually does want this resolved quickly, without waiting for Spike to take his dandy time with it.

Riddle hovered twenty-five bits out of his pouch. He kept two in the air close to himself, then hovered the rest along with a quill and blank parchment towards Spike, who scribbled out the note and flamed it in less than ten seconds. The remaining two bits were delivered.

"Pleasure doing business with ya," said Spike.

Only because I'm consciously trying to make it a pleasure for you instead of a pain, given that you are a minor and Luna would want me to do that.

"Our business might not be over quite yet," Riddle cautioned. "I might ask that another letter be sent, depending on Ms. Sparkle's reply. If she replies."

"Fine by me."

A minute passed in silence. Spike went back to his parchment, which at a glance seemed to be about Chaos Magic. Homework about chaos magic…

Eventually, Spike looked up again. "So… how long you gonna wait? It can take a while."

"Four more minutes, then I'll leave the premises." Ponyville would be his next destination. "I'll return here if there are no leads, and then call it a day if she hasn't responded to your letter by then."

"Cool," said Spike. He began twiddling his thumb-claws.

"You have trouble focusing when I'm here?" Riddle asked, since he had nothing better to do.

"Um… yeah."

"We could talk to pass the time," said Riddle. "If you wish."

"Um… what about?"

Out of habit from practicing positive and curious conversations with the reserves, two mnemonics from one of Mr. Potter's psychology books went through his mind:

Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams.

Religion, Abortion, Politics, Economics. (This second mnemonic would not be understood all that well by the inhabitants of modern Equestria, Luna had pointed out. Ancient Equestria, absolutely.)

When having casual chats with strangers whose beliefs you don't know (or even when you do know their beliefs, even if their beliefs align with yours), it is safer and 'happier' to FORD your conversational partner instead of RAPEing them. The book did not put it quite like that, of course.

It is also productive to discuss topics you yourself are genuinely interested in, so…

"How goes the chaos magic?" Riddle asked.

Spike blew out some flame onto his hand and snapped his finger-claws.

Riddle erected a flat shield to block the suddenly-incoming, large letters that said 'GREAT!'. The answer to his question collided against his barrier, rebounded, and turned out to be made of paint and glitter, which splattered all across the library.

"Oh, that's just great!" Spike groaned. "Now I gotta clean all that up."

"Joke's on you, I suppose," Riddle said. "Although I could clean it up," he offered. "If you answer a few questions about what you just did."

"Really? Sure!"

With a thought, Riddle's magic vanished half of the mess. "The rest will be cleared once my questions are answered. First, what exactly did you intend to do when you snapped your fingers? What was going through your mind?"

"I wanted to show you my chaos magic is going great."

"Anything else?"

"Um… no?"

Since Spike didn't seem to be overly self-aware of his own thought processes – not surprising given his age and intellect – Riddle would have to get at the answer a different way. "Why not just tell me it was going great?"

"Well… showing is better than telling, you know?"

"But your demonstration did tell me. That paint spelled out the word 'GREAT!' as it approached me."

Spike's eyes widened. "It did?"

It was only in the air for a brief time, and perhaps backwards from Spike's perspective. "Yes, it did. But what I want to know is why you did not answer my question by saying 'great' and then demonstrate your chaos magic."

"Ummm… I didn't want to bother saying it. That's boring. And Chaos magic works better when you surprise ponies out of the blue."

Riddle processed that answer. "Then allow me to summarize what just happened, and you tell me if it sounds right. Your first impulse was to answer my question by saying 'great', but you didn't want to just say it, you wanted to demonstrate your progress. So since you didn't want to say it, the Chaos magic made written letters. Instead of, say, a big mouth shouting 'GREAT!' at me." He used the Royal Canterlot Voice for effect. "Does that sound correct?"

Spike's eyes were very wide. "Um… yeah. Say, have you been talking with Discord? Because you sound like he does when he gets going about chaos magic. Sort of. Well, actually you don't sound like him at all. But you sound like you know a lot about Chaos magic. Um… book smart. Like Twilight. But she's not the best when it comes to Chaos."

Riddle shook his head as he cleared the rest of the mess. "I know a lot about magic. My only experience with Chaos magic is on the receiving end. But when you know as much as I do, you begin to see overlap and underlying patterns. Chaos magic is… reminiscent, of something else I know about."

Namely, accidental magic from children. He studied that topic in-depth at one point, back in his Hogwarts years. It had been independent research with the goal of growing more powerful, not an assignment from class. His efforts had turned up little immediate fruit back then, but he remembered the most important insights about accidental magic, and apparently they are a decent reference frame for understanding a fledgling user of Chaos magic.

Implicit intent, instantiated.

"Wha- *burp* -t's the thing it reminds you of?" Spike asked, casually grasping a letter from the air and not allowing the belch to bother him in the slightest or disturb his speech.

"Classified. What does the letter say?"

Spike pursed his lips. "You know, most ponies are impressed or weirded out when I do that without flinching."

Riddle stared flatly for a while. Then, in an unimpressed voice, "I am mildly impressed that you did not pause in your speech, that you caught the letter, and that your emotions appeared utterly unbothered by this occurrence that you have had years to grow used to. What did Ms. Sparkle write in response to your question?"

Spike pouted, stuck out his tongue, then glanced over the letter. "Eh, she didn't write this. Looks like she's using the speech-to-spelling spell. She says she's busy exploring alternate timelines with somepony named Starlight Glimmer… they were enemies and now they're not, standard stuff… but Starlight still has a lot of deep wishes that would make her Twilight's enemy, so they're working through those… and also Twilight learned something horrifying that she's trying to understand better. Like I said, one of those days."

Riddle floated over twenty-six bits, holding three more at his side. "Two sentences this time, and they're slightly more complicated. Inform her that I arrived for our joint venture, and that I am mildly curious about what's going on. Thirty seconds or less."

Spike grasped his quill and the parchment he'd just finished reading from, started scribbling about halfway down the parchment, stopped after a span of twenty-six seconds, shot out a spout of green fire, and snatched his three extra bits from the air.

The response was much quicker this time.

"Uh…" said Spike, looking at the letter, then to Riddle, then back to the letter. "Oops."

Riddle raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to handle this reply," said Spike.

"Will I be charged for it?"

"Oh! Um… no." Spike wrote out a quick sentence in less than five seconds and flamed it.

The letter returned very quickly indeed.

Spike grew a bit pale after reading the response. He frantically wrote another response, flamed it, and twiddled his thumbs very fiercely, looking down at his lap.

The letter came back.

Spike read it, wrote hastily, flamed.

The letter came back.

Spike read it and gave a sigh of relief.

"May I ask what that was about?"

"You can ask Twilight what that was about. Or I could ask her if it's okay for you to see the letter, but…" Spike held out his hand. "Thirty-two bits, and gimme thirty seconds to write it, and she might say no."

Riddle considered writing it himself and saving 12 bits on principle. But it might be more likely to be rejected coming from him instead of Spike. (Yes, he obviously considered stealing/reading without permission.)

Riddle offered twenty-eight bits, holding four at his side.

Spike wrote, sent, and was paid.

There was a long pause this time.

"*Burp*." Scaled claws grasped the parchment and green eyes looked down to its bottom line. "Alright," sighed Spike. "Here you go."

He set the letter down on the table and turned it around for Riddle to read.

Riddle grasped it in his magic and began scanning at speed.

---

Where are you, Twi?

-Spike

Sorry Spike, I don't have much time to talk right now, I'm busy exploring alternate timelines with Starlight Glimmer. She decided she was my enemy a while ago and did some stuff with Time magic to try and make me lose my friends, but I carefully explained that Time magic is dangerous and all the stuff she was changing was literally doing things like getting Princesses killed and causing tyrannies to rise to power. And then I asked why she wanted to make me lose my friends anyway, and we had a long talk about the importance of friends and growing up, but she said she still has this desire to break up my friendships and it's not so easy to just change like that, and I said that's okay because I'd actually like to explore some of these different futures she's creating. I noticed a worrying trend. So she went ahead and kept wanting to break up my friendship a few more times, and I asked her if she wanted to come along to see what breaking up my friendships actually does to the future, and after doing that a few times I realized something really horrifying. Now I'm busy learning more about that. So I really don't have time to talk.

Real quick, Riddle's here for your 'joint venture'. He wants to know what you're doing.

DON'T TELL HIM!

Um… too late?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry! He paid me to send this letter in the first place! And the second reply! I'm sorry! What's wrong?

Wait! Wait, is it OUR Riddle? The one from our timeline? Wait, of course he is, joint venture, actually calls himself Riddle, you're my Spike because I'm not in a different timeline right now, duh. Spike, just to check, sorry for the weird question, but what's the name of Princess Celestia's sister?

You mean Princess Luna?

Yes. Thank you. I'm sorry for screaming. Thank you for clearing things up.

He's still here right now, asking what the last few sends were about. I didn't tell him after the second. Can I show him the letter?

Yes.

---

Riddle read the letter multiple times, examining key details, slowing down on the sections he did not immediately understand, narrowing in on the 'notes of confusion' as Mr. Potter would call them. At the very least he was attempting to explicitly notice each part he was confused about.

He was not given much time to work on the problem before Twilight appeared next to Spike, alongside a unicorn Riddle had not seen before.

The unicorn shrieked in alarm and cowered behind Twilight.

Riddle raised an eyebrow.

Twilight looked weary, wary, and wind-swept. "Riddle, I'm sorry if this sounds weird, but I really, really really need you to give, like, a two-minute summary of the big threats to Equestria in the last five years. And also your role in them. And also say what Princess Luna means to you."

Riddle did not so much as blink at the question. He'd understood by now that Twilight had encountered at least one different version of himself in the 'alternate timelines' she wrote about.

He spoke quickly and precisely. "When Nightmare Moon returned five years ago, you and the elements purified her of Sombra's dark influence. I helped with the situation behind the scenes. Three years ago Chrysalis orchestrated a plot to impersonate Princess Cadence, infiltrate Canterlot, and take over Equestria. I came across the plot by luck, infiltrated her infiltration, and ultimately ended her reign after she was expelled from Canterlot so that Thorax could become the new King. The brief yet intense invasion of the changelings brought enough chaos to Canterlot to allow Discord to free himself. I instructed the changelings on how to use Harmony magic to save ponies across Equestria while you and the Elements handled Discord directly. Luna was heavily involved in both of these incidents. Over a year ago was the Crystal Empire Affair. I stunned Sombra after he ran away from your defeat of him, and you and I later escorted his prison convoy to Tartarus. This year I killed Tirek after he had stolen the magic of the Princesses and killed Luna, whom I then revived. As for what she means to me… objectively speaking she is my talk therapist. In return for saying all of this, I'd ask you to tell me more about what sounds like an incredibly fascinating magical process, one I've only read about in legends up until this point."

And written them off like the fiction they were. 'What if the past was different?' is not a question that any real magical processes have been able to truly answer, in Riddle's experience.

"Okay," said Twilight. "Okay, I didn't know you did all that behind the scenes, actually. But okay!" she repeated, sounding a little more authoritative, and with forced cheer. "See, Starlight?" she asked the pony peeking out from behind her, who no longer looked like she wanted to desperately flee and now looked like she wanted to know a lot more. Or like she wanted to faint. "He might not exactly be a good pony in the normal timeline, but he's not exactly bad either, and he's trying to get better-" Twilight paused. "Would you like to sit down?"

"Yes," said Starlight, who walked over and collapsed into a cushioned library chair.

"Would you like to rest and think for a while?" asked Twilight.

"Yes," said Starlight.

"Okay. Can I ask a favor from you tomorrow?"

"Sure," said Starlight. "You can ask a million favors."

"Okay… um, this is going to sound super weird, and it's probably not at all what a good psychologist would recommend, but just as a favor to me, could you please hold on to that desire to break up my friendships for just a few more days?"

There was a pause.

Starlight looked like she wanted to flee the room again.

"You don't have to come along anymore!" Twilight said hastily, and in what she probably thought was a reassuring tone. "But I'd really like to explore a few more alternate timelines, and the spell only works if you deeply want to change the past as one of your deepest desires, so… pretty please hold onto it for a little longer?"

"I…" said Starlight, no longer looking afraid, just at a loss. "I guess I'll… try?"

"Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you!" said Twilight, picking her up out of the cushioned seat in a quick hug. "Wait! It might not work if you like me." She shoved Starlight away from her, back down into the cushioned seat. "Grr! I hate you! Get off my property, go home, and think about what you've done!"

Twilight's horn glowed, and Ms. Glimmer disappeared in a flash of teleportation light.

Twilight let out a long breath of air. She turned to face Riddle.

His lips had been twitched upward in an amused smile for a while now.

"Do you know what I am extremely tempted to do right now?" asked Twilight, her emotions obviously and carefully controlled.

"Something unproductive or counterproductive to your long-term goals," Riddle guessed. "Such is the nature of many emotional 'temptations'."

Twilight paused. "…Yyyyyeeeees," she said, drawing out the word, as if she was only just now, in real time, explicitly realizing Riddle's observation applied to her 'temptation', whatever it was.

"I thought as much. I am highly familiar with those."

"Personal experience?"

"Yes."

"As in, you had to deal with those temptations yourself?"

"Yes. Much of my youth and early adulthood was spent adopting habits to overcome them."

Ms. Sparkle seemed to think about that for a moment. "So… would you blame me if I succumbed to one of them for, like, thirty seconds?"

"Hah! Thirty seconds would quickly become the rest of the day, believe me. I would understand, certainly, but it would still reflect badly upon you in my eyes, now that you know about the problem as explicitly as you clearly do. I was worse at your age, but I still strived never to fail when I could see my folly in advance. Competent wizardry is to be in perfect control of every aspect of your will and body, such that nothing interferes with any spell you are casting. Not your focus, not your-" finger positions or gestures or voice "-mental shaping, not your battle strategies. Competent magic-wielders never lose control. Especially of their emotions."

"And if I don't care how competent you think I am as a magic-wielder?"

A shrug. "I am intended to work on what might be the most important magical project in all of ponykind's history with Equestria's most competent magic-wielder, aside from myself. That will be more difficult to do if I do not fully respect her competencies."

Twilight sat down at this point and put her eyes in her hooves. She was not crying, to Riddle's best estimation. "Okay. What did you eventually do about your temptations when you couldn't act them out?"

"I found alternatives."

"Then give me a moment to think of an alternative to my temptation."

"By all means," said Riddle.

There was a slightly long pause.

"Okay," said Twilight, looking up from her hooves. "Found an alternative." She met Riddle's gaze. "I have a question for you, instead of an accusation."

Riddle's eyebrows rose. "Very well. But think it through before you speak. If your first impulse was to accuse, your second impulse to question might contain a hidden accusation."

Twilight went back to holding her eyes in her hooves for a while. "Okay," she looked up. "Got it this time." She took a breath, then spoke with careful clarity. "Do you think that you naturally tend towards extreme authoritarianism?"

"What do you mean by 'extreme'?"

"Like, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek?"

Riddle's eyebrows rose. "I see… and what do you mean by 'naturally tend towards it'?"

"Like, if you never had Luna as a therapist, that's how you'd be right now, almost guaranteed?"

His eyebrows rose further. "…Yes," he eventually answered. "I do think that is a strong tendency of mine."

"Thank you for being honest," said Twilight. "Now I need a bit more time to think."

Riddle allowed her to think without objection or distraction.

Twilight looked up again. "Do you think your desire for dictatorship will get you closer to your long term goal?"

"Which one?"

"The one you told me about on the train. Achieving happiness."

Good memory, Ms. Sparkle, he thought.

Then Riddle thought about the question. He tried to predict what Luna might say. "My 'desire for dictatorship', as you put it, is likely a desire that takes me further from that goal in particular. Not that I see how just yet."

Twilight nodded. "Do you know why authoritarianism is a strong impulse of yours? Do you have a reason that isn't just a laundry list of justifications and rationalizations and defensiveness for your behavior? Do you have a reason that Chrysalis or Sombra or Tirek or Nightmare Moon would not give?"

There was a much longer pause. All impulses to answer were shut down by that second qualification.

Because other people are stupid and do not act in their own self interest even when they believe they are doing so is probably an answer that is uniquely his own, but still something that, from Twilight's perspective, Sombra or Nightmare Moon might say. He almost said To save the world, but Sombra had believed that he was saving the world in some regards. That was a factoid he'd learned for the history section of his admissions test into Canterlot U.

"…No," he ultimately answered. "I do not have an explanation that wouldn't just sound like an excuse to you, or boastful arrogance, or perhaps delusion."

Certainly nothing that Luna would allow him to get away with without examining the statement for ten minutes and asking him to elaborate on every detail, which would mean she thinks it's indicative of a deeper problem. Even when it is a fully factual and accurate statement, she does that, and she has proven wise to do so.

"And is Luna working on your tendency towards tyranny?" Twilight asked. "Are you working on it? Have you discussed authoritarianism with her?"

Hm… how to answer that… "The topic of authoritarianism has come up recently in my private conversations," he said. "But not with Luna. She has addressed my desire to disregard the property rights of others-" i.e. to be dark "-and my behavior of making major decisions for others without asking them first-" i.e. to be a lord "-but that is the closest she has come to the topic, I think. She has not addressed politics directly, aside from topics that I brought up. And those were because I was curious about a few specific issues that are viewed differently-" i.e. with less rigorous attention to academic detail and predictive power "-by Earth societies in general."

"Issues such as…?"

"The issue of aberrant sexual preferences was discussed. Deviants and deviant behavior are either hated and therefore misunderstood by most idiots back on my home planet, or their preferences must go unquestioned, and thus uncriticized, and thus they are misunderstood by the other idiots comprising the rest of my planet. Oh, and she utterly refused to entertain my questions about abortion."

Twilight had her eyes in her hooves again.

"Ms. Sparkle?"

"Thinking of alternatives instead of outbursts again. Give me a moment."

…

…

…

"Okay," said Twilight, standing fully up out of the chair. "I'm going to trust that Princess Luna knows what she's doing. I'm going to trust that Princess Celestia knows what she's doing. I'm going to trust… I don't know, Time itself, because I think I would have heard a prophecy by now if I was supposed to do something about you. I don't know how much of what I saw was coming from you and how much of it came from your stupid planet in general."

"Hm," said Riddle, his lips twitching upward. "I suppose that is good to hear. Any other alternatives?"

"Yes. I am not going to treat you like a problem I have to solve. I am going pretend like all this didn't happen and all I did was teach Starlight Glimmer an important lesson about Friendship and Magic while I learned one myself. I am going to pretend like I didn't see you being the lord or ruler or king or dictator or prince or president of Equestria or sometimes all of Equus in every single alternate timeline I went to."

Riddle's eyebrows rose.

"And finally," Twilight finished, "I am going to pretend like I don't know exactly what the other you's were capable of doing and exactly whom the other you's were capable of killing in order to get power and keep power."

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Interesting Tarsky slice of alternate realities, especially given Spike being left behind this time so he doesnt see Riddle go full Dark Lord, especially given what such timelines might have done with a readily available easily mind alterable Dragon?

[Fireeaters]

Sounds like the mirror was giving reasons to discourage the abandonment of Harry's and tom's wishes

[The Guy Who Writes]

11745266
Hm... I'm having trouble understanding exactly what you mean, but I think you're close to sorta-being right, maybe. You're looking bigger picture than what I was hoping some readers would figure out before next rehab chapter.

Starlight Glimmer using time-travel to break up Twilight's friendships happened in canon MLP, with Discord and Sombra and Chrysalis and so on ruling the 'altered presents' that Twilight saw. The puzzle I was intending readers to solve, and the answer is difficult to get exactly right, is: "How does the time-travel spell work, when considering only magics shown in HPMoR, and IF you get that answer right, why did it show what it showed? What is the general explanation for the butterfly effect in this scenario? Why did breaking up Twilight's friendships result in Riddle dictatorship literally every single time?

[Greenhorn]

Quick question, Twilight. Have you found a world where Riddle is married? If so, with whom?

[The Guy Who Writes]

11745412
I hadn't intended to cover that in story, and I still don't, because Riddle wouldn't ask Twilight about that, so I'll answer this in the comments:

NO.

I'll go into it a bit later, but the various dictator-Riddles had no reason to adopt a Patronus Charm ambition, thus no reason to seek out anything remotely like a long-term relationship. They are closer to HPMoR canon-Riddle, and thus they would scowl at the thought.

I can maybe see the 'president' Riddle iteration getting married to give himself every advantage about good public relations and electability. But I hadn't thought about that until reading your comment and writing my own just now. And in THAT scenario, he'd choose a Fluttershy-like wife (if he didn't just marry a time-turned iteration of himself like Perenelle did after inventing the Nicholas Flamel persona), somepony COMPLETELY inoffensive in every possible way if a journalist came knocking.

[Fireeaters]

11745409
I meant that since the mirror can play god, it was showing Twilight, a large contributor to harry and tom's want of spreading immortality and tom's reformation, what would've happened if those goals were abandoned.

If she was a different person, she'd be unable to help properly

[Fireeaters]

Perhaps the mirror can control some aspects of prophecy

[The Guy Who Writes]

11745542
Hm... close but not quite. Remember who was heavily implied to be casting the spell, whose desires it was being based off of. What you mentioned isn't the 'what if' scenario that caused all the other butterfly effects.

it was showing Twilight, a large contributor to harry and tom's want of spreading immortality and tom's reformation, what would've happened if those goals were abandoned.

It wasn't showing her 'what if those goals were abandoned'. Just like in canon MLP, it was showing her 'what if your friendships were disrupted in the distant past'. It was showing her the result of Starlight Glimmer's deep desire.

In that 'what if' scenario, how many of those goals you mentioned do you think were adopted by anyone in the first place? And also, why or why weren't they adopted? And why was one result in particular so consistent, et cetera et cetera.

[carlarc]

Interesting puzzle. It's especially interesting because Twilight's friends haven't actually been that relevant in Tom Riddle's redemption so far, which leaves one to wonder how, exactly, losing them breaks Riddle's redemption.

I'm reading this fic coming from HPMOR and have little to no knowledge on MLP, (Though this fic is certainly doing a good job of tempting me) so I may be missing some key details. I don't know what the exact point of divergence is for the alternative timelines, though from remnant knowledge I believe there's multiple.

My first theory is that Harmony is weakened or broken if the Elements of Harmony become divided. Riddle's redemption is SO precarious and reliant on Harmony twisting everything into fulfilling Silver's wish that even one breakage creates a cascading event that ends in him ruling over Equestria. They fail to defeat Nightmare/Chrysalis/Sombra, Riddle cleans up, refuses to hand back power. He might give up on his goal of returning to Earth at all, seeing as he lacks any interest in the True Patronus from your above comment. Equestria is, after all, more than enough to hold his attention for eons. Perhaps President Riddle is from one of the mid-therapy divergences.

That said, I'm not sure it explains why precisely Harmony decided to have this happen now where Riddle could see it. Twilight's conclusion is to forget it ever happened - not very harmonious. Thus it's meant for Riddle to infer something.

[Fireeaters]

11745550
Oh ok, you're saying I'm missing the cause and effect from the perspective of pony world. I was still thinking from "the world was created when dumbles fucked up his trap" instead of 'the mirror decided to repurpose one of its creations', for some reason. I guess it must've slipped my mind. Maybe my mind decided to file that nugget away as only 'set dressing'.

[Fireeaters]

11745550
'Who was casting the spell to have their desire', huh? I guess Starlight might've accessed the mirror's wish function, or parser or something, and opened another 'instance'

[aKazzle]

No friendship => No Luna redemption => Tom Riddle's dictatorship??

[The Guy Who Writes]

11745571
This is about as close as I expected anyone to get, yes. Much better.

[Duplex Fields]

In the middle of Spike and Twi’s letter, I got a thrill of adrenaline when I realized Twilight had met (or observed) another Riddle. My very first thought was, “Oh no, Riddle might have to fight a Voldemort! Time might be leaky!”

[Poparakelis]

"And finally," Twilight finished, "I am going to pretend like I don't know exactly what the other you's were capable of doing and exactly whom the other you's were capable of killing in order to get power and keep power."

Huh, didn't expect that, but still love it

[keybounce]

11745409
Yeah, I'm wondering this as well. *Every* timeline, from a disruption that happened years before their arrival.

We had, of course, Nightmare moon's timeline -- and that one ... if you don't have the harmony ponies, you just have Riddle kill Nightmare Moon. No Luna, no therapy, etc. Fine.

Then, there's things like the Changelings taken over, or Commercialization (Flim/Flam), or ...

In each of these? If Riddle shows up, and is not redeemed by therapy? Yeah, he goes crazy/powerful. But given all the other changes that are seen?

I have trouble accepting that given the very large set of changes that we see in the canon episode, there is a *constant* here.

In fact, there is one more problem that I see. In order for every timeline to have a Riddle in power, there must be *no* timelines where Riddle does not show up.

So how do you get a pre-commitment from Time that Riddle *must* show up, implying that Dumbledore's shenanigans had to play out exactly, given the very large changes that alternate timelines show?

I am almost forced to draw the conclusions that these "alternate timelines" are in fact, *nothing of the sort* -- they are Time and Harmony playing with Twilight and Starlight.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11770274
Well, that's one possibility. But at this point, I'm just going to say my original intentions, because I don't think I'll explicitly get to it in story:
The Mirror universe was constantly proceeding in the 'background' of real Time. Let's assume Twilight Sparkle is 18 years old at the start of the show (I have no idea if this is true), and let's assume she was 8 years old at the time of RD's first Sonic Rainboom (again, no idea if this is true, just talking theory here). In that case, since Equestrian Time and real Time were progressing at the same rate until the springing of the trap (as evidenced by Merlin being at least as old as Celestia), that means it's possible that, around the time Voldemort was attackingt the Potters on Earth, the Rainboom incident happened on Equestria simultaneously. THis is a complete ass-pull, this isn't how it actually happened, but what I'm getting at is that until the moment of the trap being sprung on Voldemort, Equestrian Time was progressing side-by-side with Earth time.

So, taking that as a given, when you change something in the distant past of Equestria, you change how Equestria looks like at the moment of the Mirror-trap being sprung. The Mirror itself has some amount of agency and processing power and Time predictive power, the degree to which is currently unknown. It has far more predictive power and influence over its reflected worlds - and what happens in them - than the outside world. So, if you go back and change Time such that Twilight's friendship is never formed, you have a different 'starting point' of Equestria at the Time the Mirror is considering sending Riddle/Harry/Quirrell/MaybeDumbledore there. In that one instance, the Mirror has full control over who it sends where, who it traps, who it doesn't trap, and why.

In the friendship-less worlds, in order to satisfy the most amount of desires in the long run, it decides to keep Harry untrapped, it traps Dumbledore/Riddle, and it gives Riddle everything he wants in the short term, because that's the most efficient way to (a) satisfy his desires and (b) lead him to emotional rock bottom. Eventually he's going to get bored, eventually he's going to find the Mirror, eventually he's going to find Dumbledore, eventually - maybe in a thousand subjective years, but eventually - he will become 'good enough' for the future of Earth and humanity to be released, either by Dumbledore or the Mirror. 'Harmony' would take MUCH longer to work on him, but it WOULD eventually work on him. At which point, the moment he's released, he is released on Earth at exactly the moment he was trapped. He sees Harry Potter standing there, unaware that a thousand subjective years had passed for Riddle, Dumbledore is still trapped under the 'needs to be forgiven by Draco and/or anyone who blames him for removal of parent' clause, and you've got a different story. But that's how the Mirror approaches the 'satisfy all desires in a positive way as quickly as possible' problem when you don't have Twilight's friendship. For all that it might occasionally seem insignificant to this overarcing story, they're a big brick in the foundation. Remove it, and the Mirror has to take a different, longer approach to desire-satsifaction accross the board. An approach that involves tyrant-Riddle in the short term every single time.

Because the Mirror isn't quite optimizing for Equestrian desires, or even the desires of those standing before it. As it was originally designed by the Atlanteans, the Mirror is optimizing, first and foremost, for the non-destruction of Earth and Earth's life forms, despite the fact that it has no direct influence on Earth, it can only trap things from Earth. And from there, it only has influence on its own false worlds, it can't touch free will. And the Harry-Riddle situation is IMMEDIATELY important to Earth's continued existence, even a billion prophecies agree on that point, so for once the Mirror gets heavily involved, trying to optimize that specific scenario FOR EARTH. Which results in Riddle-dictator over Equestria in the short term every single time if the Elements of Harmony aren't primed and ready. Because it can't touch Free Will, and Riddle's free will is to go and become a dictator every single time, and the Mirror is AT THE VERY LEAST going to trap HIM, because he's the single biggest entity that needs "fixing" in this entire scenario. Harry just needs the Vow, Dumbledore is a question mark, Voldemort is BIG BLARING RED FLAG FIX THIS, but also the Mirror can't kill him or touch his Free Will, and in fact he's beneficial for future earth if he can return redeemed.

The consistent factor your looking for: Riddle believes that Riddle-dictator is the single best, most competent, and in fact the only possible good path forward for any world he's a part of.

[keybounce]

Hmm...

So, the future of Equestria/Atlantis is always "Riddle shows up". I suppose that makes sense, if Riddle showing up happens independently of anything happening in Equestria, given only that Dumbledore decided to check out all the prophecies and alter things based on that plan.

OK, so that explain why every future Twilight checks out by Starlight's time has Riddle -- he has shown up prior to that point and done whatever.

Hmm ... the rainboom moment being the Volde death moment ... that ... just *feels* like the sort of thing that would make a perfect prophecy / time-lock moment. They just kinda fit, now that you mention it.

[Black--Soul]

Voldemort was very kill happy in the start of the story, guess in mist timeliness he never changed in that regard.